So, it's been about two weeks since this was released at Ubidays, and I figured that somebody else would've mentioned it by now, but Beyond Good & Evil 2 has finally been announced. After many years of waiting, the cult would-be-trilogy game is finally getting its much anticipated sequel and it looks absolutely gorgeous.

This is clearly a PS3/360/PC game, but can you blame it's creator Michael Ancel for straying away from the Wii after Ubisoft bastardized his last creation "Rayman" with those darned annoying Rabbids on the console? Yeah, case point.

Anyways, unless you've been in the total dark of video game cult, Beyond Good and Evil was a sleeper hit of them all, which would've been one of the best games ever had Ubisoft also not been stupid and released Prince of Persia along with BGE, at the same time that a ton of other franchise games were coming out. Of course this thing got left in the dust. However, over the last little while, in gamings downtimes, people have been hearing about it, picking it up, and the crowds of devoted fans have been growing, to the point where Ubisoft has finally caved in and allowed its sequel to be made.

The storyline is really hard to sumarize, but it's basically about a girl Jade and her piglike "uncle" Pey'j, who live on a planet called Hillys as a freelance photographer and lighthouse keepers. The planet is a gorgeous islandscape [don't even try it Wind Waker] filled with exotic wildlife, a bustling and peaceful community, and ecofriendly transportation such as hover cars, boats and hover crafts. This planet is essentially paradise. However, a horrible alien invasion has come to pass on Hillys, a race of beings called the DomZ have set Hillys as their recent target of their ongoing war upon the galaxy. Capturing citizens for sacrifice, and laying waste to the planet in their wake, Jade decides to use her lighthouse as an orphanage for the children of Hillys who have lost their parents in the war. To protect the citizens, come the Alpha sections, military grunts who protect the people from the horrible invasion...or so they claim. In truth, there's a conspiracy at the root of the recent Alpha sections control over the planet, and it's up to Jade and Pey'j to forge an alliance with the IRIS network, and underground newspaper like The Wolfman to bring the truth to the surface.

If you want a game that'll inspire you, make you laugh, your heart melt, cry [yeah I did, twice], and give you that all around feeling of awesome, pick up the first game. It's for all last gen consoles: PS2, PC, XBX, GC. You can even get it off of Gametap and I think Steam has it too, and seriously if you don't like the gameplay [which I have no idea how you couldn't] the music is some of the best soundtrack you will ever hear...ever!

Oh, and for everyone who's actually played the first game through to the end credits, when you watch the trailer for the second one, pay note to Pey'j's hand and the opening music on the sitar .

I like the observation that Jerry Holkins made in one of the Penny Arcade podcasts about how the number of people excited about BG&E2 and praising the original title is completely disproportionate to how well the game actually did on the shelves.

I loved the atmosphere or immersion or characters or whatever the fuck from the first game. I liked something, and that something deserves credit for being done so well. I should try to give it another playthrough in anticipation of this sequel.

Heh, yeah I wasn't one of the originals that picked it up straight from shelf, but I did pick it up used within a year of its release [after actually reading the reviews] to take a risk, and it was totally worth it. It's recent hike in popularity is simply because it's been advertised virally through word of mouth. Penny Arcade, Video Games Live, Yhatzee even advertised it as the "Another Better Game" during his The Darkness review, so that probably had some impact. But seriously though, that's not a bad thing! If the sequel can hit the big time in terms of sales, then this game will be a fully revived series from the depths of the video game graveyard!

Maybe the word is "charm" Michael; I dunno. It's more than just a charming game though. It's that plus a little je ne sais quoi. I've currently lent my copy of the game to my best friend so that he can give it a go and currently he's loving it, past the point that he utterly sucks at the combat for some unknown reason.

It's not official yet, but anyone who's played the first game can plainly see it's the same character, although the style (at least in this environment) is pretty different. (What's funny is all the comments saying it's a Mirror's Edge sequel, even though it shares NONE of the design aesthetic from that game).

Some are saying this is a target render, but I think this is probably an in-game cinematic (or even playable sequence -> refer to the rooftop chase from the first game). If the latter is the case, looks like I'll either have to buy a new computer ( I need one anyways) or plunk down for a 360, cause I doubt it'll be on Wii.

=D Yeeeeaaah! I saw that recently too! I don't see any animal people in the populace, so I'm almost positive it's not something that will make the final cut, but instead it looks similar to the footage that you can find on youtube of a chase scene with Jade in her original clothing [before they were changed to her green outfit] from the first game.

This certainly looks like a demonstration though, and almost undoubtably from something that we can assume will become BGE2. Can't wait!